Resident Evil: Spirit
by Ovelia
Summary: A fresh, new take on the destruction of Raccoon City. Farrah Todd is the typical teenager that thinks surviving high school is hard, but when the biting mouths of fellow cheerleaders start to eviscerate more than just feelings and the quarterback literally wants to eat her alive rather than figuratively, she learns that survival is no longer determined by making it to graduation.
1. Go Team Go

The loud deafening shot of a 9mm handgun. The crimson red blood flowing from a gaping wound in the skull of the woman that had given her life. The brains splattered across a myriad of family portraits, snapshots of a life that no longer existed. The touch of cold metal underneath her finger tips, but the rush of heat and blood to her head. The loss of innocence.

* * *

That morning, nothing had been amiss for Farrah Todd. She had woken up for school at six, as she had to every Friday. She always looked her best on Friday's, since Friday's were game days at Raccoon City High School and she was captain of the football cheerleading squad. It wasn't something that was particularly distinguishable to her, seeing as how she was given the title by default after the other senior cheerleaders were kicked off the squad for getting caught smoking pot in the boiler room. Nevertheless, she had taken her "sacred duties", as one of the younger cheerleaders described the captain's responsibilities, to heart. She had organized pep rallies and made banners for homecoming, not with much gusto, but she had done it nonetheless.

It was seven-thirty by the time Farrah had curled her hair and applied her makeup, so she slipped into her uniform and rushed down the spiral staircase into the foyer, where her mother was waiting at the foot of the stairs. She looked displeased but had an air of humor about her. Farrah was perpetually running late and rarely had time to eat the breakfast that her mother cooked for the family ever morning.

"I called up to you at least three times this morning," her mother said with a sardonic smile. "I guess I'll just assume you didn't hear me and that you weren't ignoring me."

Farrah gave her mom a quick kiss on the cheek, "I'm sorry. And I can't drop Kayley off this morning. I was supposed to be at the high school by seven thirty to help hang the homecoming banner as it is."

"Your sister isn't going to be happy about that. She likes getting dropped off by you because she thinks she looks uncool when I do it." Kayley, Farrah's thirteen year old sister, was queen of the Todd household. When Farrah had been going through an emotional spell and acting as if the world was a miserable place, Kayley threw out all of Farrah's Fiona Apple CD's and replaced them with Backstreet Boys mixes.

"She'll get over it. I love you. Bye." Farrah ignored her mother's protests about eating breakfast and slipped out the door.

Farrah spent the whole morning trying to put out cheerleading fires, which were just as dramatic as she had assumed they would be. The banners weren't hung and the younger girls were acting as if it was the end of the world and that they were going to be "totally made fun of by the basketball bitches," which is what they referred to the basketball cheerleading squad as. Farrah didn't care nearly enough about cheerleading to call anyone a basketball bitch. She barely cared enough about cheerleading to cheer her senior year and was beginning to wonder why she had.

Just when she was thinking she couldn't handle any more discussion of which banner was prettiest, her best friend Alex came along and pulled her aside to eat lunch during their free period. Alex prided herself on the fact that she was one of the kids that no one ever noticed. It wasn't that she wasn't pretty, but next to tall, blonde Farrah, Alex was just an average, brunette sidekick. Most people didn't get to see Alex's witty, irreverent sense of humor like Farrah did. In fact, Alex and Kayley acted more like sisters than Farrah and Kayley themselves because they shared the same sense of humor.

"I have no idea how I'd survive high school without you," Farrah mumbled as they sat down to eat their lunch in the courtyard.

Alex nodded as if she was a sage, in agreement. "Without me, you'd just be a pretty face. Someone has to make up for your dull personality." Farrah laughed and flipped Alex off. "So when do you have to be at this pep rally? Rah rah rah."

Farrah sighed, "I have to be in there in a few minutes. The football team went into the gym locker room like two hours ago and no one has seen them since but the principal is excusing them from classes since all he cares about are athletics."

Alex scoffed. "Don't act like the principal doesn't do you favors all the time. You'd have failed algebra and chemistry both if your dad wasn't a part of one of the original families around here. Didn't your dad belong to the same frat as Principal Evans? Irrelevant. Is your dad still out of town?"

"You love to say that I got special treatment but I went to tutoring, like, twice for chemistry." Realizing how ridiculous her defense was, Farrah conceded defeat and just laughed. You had to pretty often around Alex. "Yes, he's still out of town. He was supposed to come back yesterday but his flight got delayed so he booked some more meetings."

Alex leaned over conspiratorially and lowered her voice, "You know. It's probably good he's out of town with all of these cannibal murders going on." She took a dramatic bite of her apple and leaned back laughing. Farrah shuddered.

"That's not funny. You're such a creep." Farrah stood up and waved. "I'd say, 'see you at the pep rally', but I know I won't. Come home with me after school and help me avoid the wrath of Kayley." She took her tray to the dishwashing station and headed to the gym.

"This is a disaster! Like, no one is here," lamented one of the freshman cheerleaders. "Principal Evans said that nearly a third of the school has called in and said they were sick today. That's such bullshit! No one has school spirit anymore. Like, what is happening to America?" Several cheerleaders nodded in agreement.

Farrah rolled her eyes and looked up in the stands of the gymnasium. There were still a lot of people in the crowd for the pep rally but it was obvious that quite a few of them were sick themselves. The football team was still nowhere to be found so Farrah glanced over towards the locker room. The door was shut.

"Hey! Principal Evans!" She waved him over.

"Yes, Farrah?" He coughed into his sleeve and apologized. "I'm feeling a little under the weather. Don't get too close."

"Well, the team was supposed to be out here by now but they are still in the locker room. I can't exactly go get them because, you know, I'm a girl."

Principal Evans sighed and started walking towards the locker room, "You girls go ahead and warm up the crowd and I'll have them run out here."

Farrah formed the squad up and took her place at the front. They were a few moments into a cheer to fire up the crowd when suddenly, people in the stands began to scream. The cheerleaders were confused as they had certainly never illicited such a response from the crowd before. That's when Farrah noticed that people were not screaming with excitement, but rather fear. She stopped and turned towards the cause of the pandemonium and gasped.

Principal Evans had obviously just burst out from the locker room and fallen to the floor. He was covered in blood and scrambling away from the door. The gym went silent and it suddenly became clear that Principal Evans was crying, a deep cry that Farrah had never heard in her entire life. Just as some of the faculty came to their wits and began to rush to his aid, the door to the locker room flew open again.

The football players poured out, some of them dressed completely in their uniforms and some of them not dressed at all. The one thing they all had in common was blood. They were all covered from head to toe and groaning, as if pain. Everyone in the gym was silent until one of the players fell on top of Principal Evans and he screamed out in agony, "Someone help me!"

Suddenly the gym broke out into chaos. Students were making a mass exodus from the bleachers, falling atop each other and screaming. The faculty closest to Principal Evans were lunged towards and taken to the ground, screaming in pain as the football players sank their teeth into their flesh. The cheerleaders around Farrah began to scramble, shoving one another, scattering pom poms to the floor and shredding their precious banners as they made mad dashes in opposite directions. Farrah watched the cheerleader nearest her, a meek freshman, be taken down by a guy she recognized as a sophomore linebacker. She began to back away, nearly petrified in fear. Her eyes met those of the quarterback, Ryan, a fellow senior she had gone to school with her entire life. Except his eyes were no longer his own. The flesh around them was pale and he himself looked like a corpse. The eyes were dead. That's when she realized he _was_ dead.

This thought sent Farrah into full panic mode and she looked behind her. There were several exits out of the gym but the ones that went outside to the parking lot were so congested with students trying to escape that she would never make it. She turned her attention forward again to an exit on the farthest side of the gym, the one that went into the lobby of the school itself. She would have to sprint past all the football players - no, the corpses, the zombies - to make it to the exit. Quarterback Ryan was so close now that he could nearly reach out and grab her. She took a deep breath and lunged forward, pushing him as hard as she could with both hands. He stumbled backwards and his left leg snapped at the knee, exposing bone and blood. This spectacle gave her a moment's hesitation before she sprinted towards the exit, dodging zombies and ignoring the pleas of those being fed on as they reached out with feeble hands.

When she burst out the exit into the sterile, empty lobby she stopped. It was quiet and as if nothing was wrong. She turned and looked back one time, hoping that maybe she was losing her mind or dreaming. She wasn't. There was a pungent smell in the air and the screams of those she saw being mauled couldn't be muted. She shut the heavy metal doors behind her and took off at a sprint down the hallways of the school, screaming for help. The students that had elected not to attend the pep rally, such as Alex, were supposed to be in the library but the old librarian was so oblivious they mostly sneaked out and went home. Such as Alex. Realizing that no one was answering her cries for help, Farrah rushed to the library, where she knew the librarian would be sitting behind her desk skimming lists for past due fines. As she rushed in, the librarian gave her a disapproving look.

"You can enter the library the appropriate way or you can turn around and leave," Miss Reeves snarled incredulously. "What is the matter with you?"

Farrah opened her mouth to speak but suddenly felt light headed and fell to the floor. The last thing she heard before darkness overcame her was the frantic punching of numbers on the phone and Miss Reeves crying for an ambulance.


	2. Home Sweet Home

_ It was a beautiful, sunny day as a sixteen year old Farrah pulled onto the busy highway. She was driving her mother's Mercedes SUV since her own car was in the shop; driving something so large was new to her and she before she knew it, a car in front of her had stopped and she barreled into it, sending it flying into the car in front of it, and so forth. She immediately began crying and after a frightful, tearful few moments, Farrah had to call her father on a businessman's cellphone and tell him she had been in her first car accident._

_ Her amazing, patient father arrived a few minutes later and reassured her that everything was fine and that no one had been hurt, and that accidents happen. "Is mom mad?" she asked, her voice timid from fright._

_ Her father paused for a moment and sort of grinned. "Well, as it turns out, I didn't tell her. You know how she gets." It was true. Farrah had an amazing mother but she was not the person to turn to in a moment of crisis because her first instinct was to cast blame and it typically only made someone feel worse. He continued, "You know Farrah, as far as your mom is concerned, we switched cars and I was the one that wrecked the vehicle. Just say I needed her car to haul some things in the back and that I came by the school and got her keys._

_ "Thank you so much, thank you so much!" Farrah threw her arms around her dad and hugged him tightly. Although his business often took him away from them, he always made sure to keep up with her life and call whenever he could. Moments like this made her remember how fortunate he was._

_ "Not so fast, kiddo. You're losing your car for awhile. We'll tell your mom it's still in the shop and I'm going to take you and Kayley to school for awhile."_

_ Farrah smiled and agreed that it was a fair punishment. Both of them knew it was an excuse for him to spend more time with his daughters, but she wasn't going to argue. She wanted to spend more time with him, too._

Farrah's eyes slowly fluttered open and she noticed that she was looking at the roof of a vehicle. When she realized that the vehicle was in motion she shot up immediately. She was in the backseat of some kind of trashed up vehicle and in the front was a kid she recognized from her chemistry class. She thought his name might be Paul but she couldn't quite place him. He was lanky with a mop of red hair and if she remembered correctly, he was one of the kids who pretended like he didn't care that no one liked him and as if everything was some kind of joke. "Oh, you're awake, I see."

"What the hell? Where are you taking me? Stop the car!" As far as Farrah could tell, they weren't far from the high school at all. She wasn't sure if that was a relief or something to be concerned about.

"How about 'you're welcome'?" He scoffed. "If I hadn't pulled you out of the library you'd be dead right now, along with Miss Reeves. I knocked her out and locked her in her office when she refused to leave. The football team was working it's way down the hallway right about the time you passed out."

"You knocked Miss Reeves out? With what?" She asked incredulously.

"My overdue library book," he smirked. "Kind of ironic, really."

Farrah started to reply but stopped when she noticed the fleet of police cars coming down the opposite side of the road, towards the high school. "What happened back there?" Flashes of her teachers being eaten before her eyes entered her mind and she wondered if she would ever forget it.

"Your guess is as good as mine, captain," he said as he glanced over her uniform. "The gym was a massacre but only a few of the football team followed the students into the parking lot. Those that got out, at least. A lot of them got killed because they couldn't get out in time. Something you managed to avoid, I see."

Farrah shuddered when she recollected her decision to head into the school. If she hadn't, she'd most likely be one of those dead kids he was referring to. "I need you to take me home. If you can. My mom is going to be really worried about me."

He looked back at her as he made the first turn that would take them to her house. "You do realize we are neighbors, right? We have been ever since I moved in with my grandparents in eighth grade." Farrah blushed when she realized she indeed had no idea that he had lived next door to her for a long time.

"Wait, your grandparents are the O'Briens?" She looked around his car unintentionally. It was nothing to brag about and in terrible shape, which is not something she'd expect from an O'Brien. He must have noticed because his reply was sharp.

"Yes. I am quite literally like the red-headed stepchild. My mom was from my grandma's first marriage and in fact, not an O'Brien at all. But she skipped town after I was born and left me with my dad, who turned out to be pretty terrible as well. I lived with him until I was thirteen and then he got arrested. They basically had no choice but to take me in."

Farrah didn't know what to say so she didn't. They rode in silence the rest of the way until they passed through the gates of their neighborhood. "So, thanks for saving me back there."

He stopped the car in front of her house. "Do you feel like it isn't real? Because I do. Neither of us have discussed it. This happened, Farrah." His voice cracked and she opened the door of the vehicle.

"Let's just go inside our houses and tell our families, if they don't already know. There has to be an explanation. Some kind of drug." She heard how hollow her voice sounded and didn't believe her own explanation, no matter how badly she wanted to. "Bye."

She shut the door behind her walked to the massive front doors of her house. As she had assumed they would be, they were unlocked. Living in a gated community afforded the Todd's the ability to trust their neighbors. "Hello?" Farrah called out, her voice slightly echoing up the double staircases of the foyer. The sliding doors to the living room were open and she didn't see anyone in there, either. It was typically only her mother or the housekeeper home at this hour, and Friday's were the day that Anna had off, so the only option would be her mother.

Deciding that her mother must have left to go pick up Kayley early from school because of what had happened at the high school, Farrah went upstairs to change. She had an uneasy feeling and locked her bedroom door behind her. She walked to the opposite side of the room and went out onto her balcony, peering over to see if maybe her mother was out back having lunch and reading a book by the pool as she sometimes did. As there was no sight of her, Farrah went back inside, leaving her balcony door open to let in the cool autumn air.

When she started to shrug out of her uniform, tears sprang from her eyes and she sank to the floor. Soon she was sobbing from the core of her being as she recollected everything that had happened. She felt numb, lost, confused, and scared. Was she losing her mind? She laid there crying for at least half an hour before she thought she heard someone come in the front door. "Mom?" she called out, to no avail. "Kayley?"

Seeing as oftentimes she couldn't hear her mom call up to her, she just assumed they didn't hear her either. She stood up and wiped her tears away and walked into her closet to find something to wear. She decided to just slip one of her favorite dresses on, a simple, white, ruffled dress with a red belt in the middle that fell just short of her knees. She slipped on a pair of matching red flats and headed downstairs.

"Hello?" she called out as she made her way down the stairs cautiously. Something felt wrong. She made her way into the kitchen and found no signs of life. It looked just the same as it always did, with the floor to ceiling windows at the back of the house letting in natural light. She opened the door to the garage and was surprised to find that her mother's Mercedes was parked where it always was, which meant that she must have been at home somewhere. The Todd's had a beautiful home but it was by no means large enough to not run into your own mother.

Farrah took one last glance at the kitchen as she entered the living room, and as she did, she collided with someone that sent her falling backwards and into the floor. She slowly got to her feet and looked up; just as she was about to address what she thought was her mother, she screamed and recoiled in fear.


	3. Roadkill

"Farrah! Calm down! It's just me!" Paul said as he lowered his gun. Farrah stood up and smacked him across the arm.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Farrah asked and hit him across the arm again. "Do you think you can just come in my house with a gun?"

"We have to go, Farrah. My grandparents were just like the football team," he spoke in rushed tones, his eyes frantic and more than slightly crazy. "I found my grandma by the pool. She lunged at me but I was able to avoid her and she fell in. I ran inside and locked the door, screaming for my grandfather. There was no response so I went and grabbed the gun he keeps in the nightstand by his bed. That's when he... he shambled out of their bathroom."

It was at the moment that it dawned on Farrah that Paul was covered in blood splatters. He continued and her mouth dropped in horror, "I had no choice. I had to get past him. I shot him twice in the knees but he just kept coming. I just had to shoot him in the head." Paul looked like he could pass out at any moment so Farrah took him into the den and sat with him on the couch, where he began to sob uncontrollably.

The den was such a light, cozy room, with the beautiful day pouring in all around them from the massive windows. It was as if the day was mocking them and their misery. They sat like that for what could have been anywhere from five minutes to an hour, as the concept of time no longer had meaning to the shellshocked teenagers. Paul fell asleep crying in her lap and Farrah sat there, pondering how just two hours before if she had seen Paul at school she really wouldn't have seen him at all. She began to worry about her own family and if this was happening all over the world. What if it was the apocalypse? The Todds had never been a particularly religious, making it a point to go to mass on Easter and Christmas, but never much more than that. Was this divine retribution?

Just as Farrah was lost in her own thoughts, she heard a thud somewhere near their small office that also functioned as a relaxing library when their father was away. "Mom?" Farrah called out, to no avail. Paul wasn't stirring so Farrah slowly stood and started to walk towards the source of the sound. Something in the pit of her stomach made her halt and she picked the handgun up off the coffee table before continuing.

As Farrah opened the door to the office, her heart was beating out of her chest. A putrid smell hit her almost at once and she froze. She finally forced herself to open the door all the way and when she did, she immediately regretted it. Her mother was standing in place by a shelf that housed family memorabilia, drooling. "Mom?" Farrah squeaked and rushed forward, which caused her mother's head to snap in her direction. She snarled.

"Mom, please, no," Farrah begged, tears starting to spill from her cheeks. Her mother was usually radiant and beautiful, even if she was only wearing her pajamas. But this woman was not Farrah's mother. She was not the same smiling woman from that morning. Her flesh was pallid and gray and her eyes looked dead. She _was_ dead. Mrs. Todd groaned and lifted her arms. Farrah pushed her back, sobbing as her mother bit at the air like some sort of wild animal. Her mother collided with the shelving, knocking photographs of the family to the ground, glass shattering all around her. She still kept coming, this time more voraciously and with more purpose. She grabbed Farrah and pulled her in close, so close that Farrah could feel her mother's hot, putrid breath on her exposed neck. Farrah shoved her back again and she hit the shelf.

Farrah raised the handgun at her mother's skull and as the once-woman turned to face her, Farrah wept. "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she fired the shot directly into the woman's skull.

_The loud deafening shot of a 9mm handgun. The crimson red blood flowing from a gaping wound in the skull of the woman that had given her life. The brains splattered across a myriad of family portraits, snapshots of a life that no longer existed. The touch of cold metal underneath her finger tips, but the rush of heat and blood to her head. The loss of innocence._

Paul rushed into the room moments later and found Farrah in the same position, the gun aimed at the same spot it had been aimed at when she shot her mother. "Oh, shit," he mumbled. "Farrah! Farrah, come on, we need to go."

She looked at him through tear stained eyes and nodded.

"We'll find your sister, find Alex, and get the hell to the police station," Paul said for the tenth time, afraid that Farrah wasn't hearing anything he was saying. All she had done was nod or give him one word answers the entire time she had packed suitcases full of important family mementos and clothes for her sister and herself. It had taken her twenty minutes to pack and by the time she was done, five suitcases were packed into the back of her mother's SUV. Impressively enough, she hadn't filled them with many clothes at all but photographs and her sister's soccer trophies and favorite CD's, as well as food and bottles of water.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked her for what felt like the one hundredth time as he backed out of the garage. She nodded and looked down at her hands, wringing them repeatedly.

"Let's just get to the school, all right?" she mumbled. She didn't want to speak ever again, let alone about what had just happened. But Paul wouldn't cease.

"You put her out of her misery. Look," he continued in his best rational tone, "Whatever is happening to all of these people, it kills them. They aren't alive. There wasn't hope for her, Farrah."

She didn't find solace in the fact that he had said that, but she wasn't in the mood to bite back at him. The phone lines had been down and she wasn't able to reach anyone anywhere. For all she knew, her sister was already dead just like her mother. As they had passed through the subdivision they had noticed that many of their neighbors were shambling about just as their own families had been, and twice they passed a body in the road. They agreed they wouldn't stop to check on them because if they stopped, they most likely would never live to get back inside the car. Farrah had a little sister to live for.

This policy lasted until they were almost to the gates and there was a little girl of about five years old kneeling down in the road, her back to them. Paul stopped the car and Farrah turned to him incredulously, "Paul, no. Drive past her now."

"If that's a kid that doesn't have anyone, there's no way in hell I'm just going to leave her here, Farrah!" He opened the door to the car and Farrah slammed her fist into her own door.

"Paul! Damn it, get back in the car!" He didn't listen and he was approaching the girl now, tapping her on the shoulder, still ignoring Farrah's repeated pleas.

The little girl whirled on him and bit into Paul's finger. He screamed in agony and Farrah instinctively went to open her door to go help him, but as she was about to open it, she stopped. Although she was shaking, Farrah crawled over into the driver's seat steadily and shut the door. Paul was screaming in agony and tears were streaming down Farrah's face. She looked over at the cup holder to make sure the gun was still there, and blessedly, it was. She pressed the lock button on the side of the door and heard the reassuring click that said the doors were locked. At this point the little girl had wrapped her arms around Paul's leg and taken him to the ground. "Farrah! Please! Farrah!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, reaching out to the Mercedes.

Farrah was crying, tears streaking her face as she put the car in drive. She slammed on the accelerator and saw the shock in Paul's face right before she ran over him and the little girl both. She heard a sickening sound and then, nothing. She refused to look back and as the gate was automatically opening to let her out into the unknown, Farrah whispered repeatedly, "I'm so sorry Paul. I'm so sorry Paul. I'm so sorry Paul..."


	4. The Boys in Blue Covered in Red

Farrah had driven two miles down the road when she encountered her first obstacle. It was a roadblock, or at least the remains of one. Three police vehicles blocked her path and from what she could see in the safety of her vehicle, there were four dead police officers and several slain... zombies. "Yes, zombies," Farrah said aloud, as she had been trying to convince herself since she'd left the subdivision.

The people that she had seen today were not normal. They were the creatures of the movies she'd been too frightened to watch - horror movies come to life. And it was clearly a citywide problem, judging by the roadblock and the slain officers. If the zombies were able to overrun the police, how could Farrah save herself, let alone her sister? She pushed these thoughts aside and picked up the handgun before taking a deep breath.

When she stepped out of the Mercedes, Farrah was hit with the stench of death. She had smelled it once before when riding her bicycle as a child. She'd come across a dog that had been run over and left to rot in the streets outside of her neighborhood. She cried for days over that dog. 'Now look,' Farrah thought to herself. 'Now you're looking at the bodies of human beings.'

She determined that she would have to move the police cars out of the way in order to get past the blockade and find her sister. She made her way to the car in the middle, holding her breath as she stepped over the body of what appeared to have once been an elderly woman in a nightgown. The woman had been shot in the forehead, but clearly not before she had gotten a hold of someone, as she still had flesh and blood hanging from her mouth.

Farrah looked away and opened the door to one of the police cars. She sat in the driver's seat and started it, easily moving it out of the way. She parked it to the side of the road and stepped out, assessing her situation. The Mercedes still wouldn't be able to fit between the other two cars, so she'd have to move another. Farrah made her way to the one on the left and got inside.

She looked in the backseat and gasped. There was a dead officer, with flesh torn from his neck. He'd been lucky enough to make it inside his car and must've bled to death. As Farrah turned back towards the ignition, she could've sworn he had moved. She whirled back around and aimed the handgun at him, but he was as still as the ocean. Now breathing heavily, Farrah resolved to move the car and get the hell out there. As she turned the ignition and put the car in drive, Farrah felt hot, putrid breath on her neck. She screamed and ducked, slamming the accelerator.

The officer flew forward into the front of the car, snapping at her all the while. The car slammed into the ditch at the edge of the woods and the tires spun but did not take the car anywhere; it was stuck. In the struggle, Farrah had accidentally turned the sirens on and they rang out across the quiet, tranquil back road. The zombie continued to snap at Farrah, just out of her reach. She fumbled for her handgun and raised it towards the zombie, squeezing the trigger.

Nothing happened. Farrah grabbed the handle to the car door in a panic and threw it open. She flung herself free from the car, hitting the ditch with a thud. The zombie climbed towards the open door with zeal, his head sticking out of the vehicle. Farrah scrambled to her feet and slammed the door shut repeatedly, the zombie hissing in what may have been pain or what may have been frustration. Eventually, it's head was crushed and brains spilled all over the side of the car. The sirens continued to ring out as Farrah mercilessly slammed the door, long after the zombie was apparently dead.

Farrah finally collected herself and and put her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. That's when she noticed that sound of snapping branches coming from the woods. She slowly raised her head in fear and over the sirens, heard the guttural groans of the walking dead. Out of the darkness of the woods came three zombies, then four, then five, and then they became innumerable, falling over one another in their quest for the one source of nourishment within sight: Farrah.

Registering that the sound must have brought them towards her, Farrah turned and ran back to her car, hearing the sounds of the zombies scrambling afterwards her. The groans were so loud now that it was as if the whole hoard was breathing down her neck. She gave herself one look back and saw that they were gaining on her and that by the time she got to the car, they would be right on top of her.

She opened the door to the Mercedes and threw herself inside, slamming the door shut right as the first zombie threw itself at her. The zombie crashed against the window, smearing blood and dangling flesh all over the car. The Mercedes roared to life and Farrah slammed on the gas pedal as more and more zombies crashed against the car, threatening to overturn it. The SUV took off, nearly on two wheels, and Farrah began to sob and pray to God that the car didn't overturn. It didn't.

She looked in the rearview mirror at the crowd of zombies, probably thirty large, as they shuffled after her. How long would they follow her? Would they be able to track her to the school? As she lost sight of them, she convinced herself they couldn't and began to calm down. Her nerves were so frayed that she was beginning to question her desire to go after her sister. 'Kayley could already be dead,' she reasoned. 'Am I going to get myself killed chasing after nothing? Who would dad have then?'

Then Farrah thought of her sister, scared and alone, left in this nightmare. "You have to do this, Farrah." She repeated this over and over, pushing aside thoughts of what had happened to Paul and what she herself had just survived. She thought of Alex, and whether or not she was still alive. The one thought she kept at bay was the thought of her mother, because if she dwelled on that, she would not have any will to keep going at all.

As fields and woods gave way to businesses and traffic lights, Farrah became tense. It was very quiet and looked as if the entire city had been abandoned. That's when, up ahead, she noticed the blue and red flashing lights of another road block. She groaned but as she got closer, she realized there were living, breathing police offers manning the road. She felt a surge of hope as she slowed down.

The office motioned her forward and when he got to her window, aimed his gun at her window and motioned for her to roll it down. "Have you been bitten? Hurt?" he asked. She profusely denied it and he nodded. "You're the first survivor to come from the outskirts in almost an hour. They say it's bad in the suburbs."

She recollected the story of the previous roadblock, but left out the part where she was ever outside of her vehicle in case he thought she'd been compromised, as he had just confirmed her theory that once you were attacked, you became one of them. She didn't want him to think that she'd been touched.

"I'm Officer Kelly. If you want, I'll take you to the station." Officer Kelly was a handsome man, probably 6'1, with sandy blonde hair and brown eyes. He was probably around thirty years old and he was the safest, most authoritative figure she'd seen in the past few hours.

"I have to find my sister," Farrah objected. "She goes to Rosewood Middle School, not far from here. I'm the only one she has left in the city."

"Rosewood?" Officer Kelly smiled. "Well, you're in luck. That's one of the shelters. It hasn't been compromised and all the students are accounted for. It's over-capacity right now, though. If you want to follow me, I'll get you in."

Farrah smiled through her tears the entire way to the middle school. As she and Officer Kelly pulled up to the school she herself had once attended, she was full-on crying. Her sister was inside and she would finally feel some sort of peace in this crazy, upside down world.

She followed Officer Kelly to the outside doors of the gymnasium. They were heavy and had no windows, but she noticed that they had still been padlocked. Officer Kelly unlocked them and then beat on the door, "It's Officer Kelly! I'm with Farrah Todd, her sister Kayley is inside."

There was no answer for a what felt like an eternity but then the doors slowly opened. Her eighth grade teacher, an older, but beautiful, African-American woman named Mrs. Cameron, greeted them. The buzz of activity going on inside the gymnasium was staggering. It was clearly past capacity and reeked of sweat. She could hear the crying of infants over the general murmur of the crowd.

Farrah flung herself into Mrs. Cameron's arms and began to sob. "Where's Kayley? Let her know I'm here. I'm here." She repeated those last words over and over and Mrs. Cameron held her close. She felt the body of her former teacher tense up. She pulled herself away and saw the pain on the woman's face.

"Farrah... She's missing. Kayley is missing."


	5. Memories

The staff room of the middle school had a cozy feel to it. There were two plush couches to relax on and two snack machines that only had a few selections left. Most importantly, it was one of the only rooms in the entire school that wasn't overcrowded. Farrah was thankful for this as Mrs. Cameron sat her down on the couch, clutching her hands in her own.

"One of the other students said that Kayley and one of her friends decided to go find their families," Mrs. Cameron said, prompting Farrah to cry more than she already was. "I'm so sorry Farrah. They vanished about an hour ago."

Farrah looked up at Officer Kelly and through her tears managed to stammer, "We have to go after her. She's just a kid."

Officer Kelly leaned forward and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, "Listen, you're not much more than a kid yourself. They already put a call out for her right after she went missing and I'll go look myself, but you can't leave here until this all blows over and we figure out what's going on." Something about his voice was comforting, but there was also an edge to it.

She looked up at him and sniffled, "Who's out there? I mean, that you're missing?"

Officer Kelly paused, uncertain whether or not to answer. "My wife. My parents. Last I heard they were heading to the station, but I haven't gotten word whether or not they're there."

Farrah nodded and silence descended over the room. Mrs. Cameron was the first to break it. She addressed Officer Kelly, her own face a storm of complex emotions. "What's going on out there? My husband. My sweet, precious husband... My neighbor said he didn't make it. She watched him get pulled from his car." Mrs. Cameron began to sob and Farrah held her, this woman who had always been one of her favorite teachers.

"Right now, we think it may be related to the cannibal murders. It has to be, obviously." He went silent a moment and then hesitantly continued, leaning in closer to them. "I think what the S.T.A.R.S. said about the Spencer mansion was right. This is related."

Farrah looked up at him, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Not long ago, they got sent out to the Spencer mansion in the Arklay Mountains to investigate a lead on the cannibal murders. They said they found zombies. Creatures. A virus. And that Umbrella Corporation was behind it." He sounded frightened.

"Umbrella?" This was Mrs. Cameron, shocked. "They're vital to this economy, they've done so much for us. There's no way. No. I don't believe that. Way too much to lose."

"I, for one, will believe anything at this point," Farrah said. "But frankly, who cares who's behind it? Once you find my sister tonight, she and I are leaving and going to find our family."

Officer Kelly shook his head. "Nope. They're quarantining the city just to be safe." Seeing her terrified face, he quickly added, "But it's just a precaution. This is going to blow over."

"I'll go look for your sister. In the meantime, if you packed any luggage, you might want to change into something more practical," he said with a smirk as he eyed her now filthy dress. Farrah nodded and he turned and walked out the room. For a few moments she and Mrs. Cameron sat there holding one another, trying to find peace in what seemed like a world torn apart.

Farrah rushed out to the car and felt a chill settle over her. It was dusk now and the city was eerily quiet, no soul in sight. She tossed the handgun into her suitcase before heading inside in case anyone had objections to her handling it. Considering the fact that all of her former middle school teachers were inside, she assumed that would be everyone.

She changed in the break room into one of the only outfits she'd packed for herself. She had a pink shirt that hung off her shoulders paired with a pair of white pants and functional, but still fashionable, khaki boots. Labor Day had come and gone, but the "no white after Labor Day" rule didn't seem to matter moments after shooting your mother in the head.

Mrs. Cameron smiled at her when she reentered the crowded gymnasium. "I was just admiring some of your photographs. I hope you don't mind."

Farrah sat down beside her on the floor and shook her head. "No. Of course not." Farrah smiled when she noticed the picture Mrs. Cameron held in her hands. "My junior prom. Just a few months ago."

"You look beautiful. I love your dress. And Kayley's." Mrs. Cameron laughed.

_"You look beautiful, Farrah!" exclaimed Mr. Todd as Farrah and her mother came down the spiral staircase. "Gorgeous!"_

_ Farrah blushed and gave him a hug. "Thanks, daddy." _

_ "You aren't allowed to be old enough for prom yet," her mother said from behind her as she tried to adjust Farrah's curls to perfection. "And again, thanks for picking a suitable dress and not something that you'd wear on a pole like half the girls your age."_

_ "Thank dad for buying it," Farrah laughed. Her dress was beautiful, flowing to the ground and cinched in the middle with a single diamond. Everyone was admiring Farrah when suddenly, they heard someone clear his or her throat at the top of the stairs._

_ When they looked up, Kayley was standing there wearing her Easter dress and dripping in some of their mother's diamonds. She'd clearly done her own hair and makeup and it looked awful, the way a blind prostitute might apply makeup. She slowly made her way down the stairs and it became evident that she was wearing a pair of Farrah's heels._

_ The three older Todd's were speechless. When Kayley finally reached the foot of the stairs, she shrugged. "What?"_

_ Farrah's mother laughed first, and then her father. They were practically doubled over in laughter and Farrah felt her rage rising. This was supposed to be her day, not Kayley's. "You are SUCH a brat," Farrah shouted. "This is why you've been hidden away in your room all day?"_

_ Kayley was smiling ear from ear, seemingly unaffected by her sister's outburst as her parents continued to laugh. "I'm channeling my inner Lolita," Kayley said in a faux sweet voice. _

_ "Who?" Farrah responded blankly._

_ Kayley rolled her eyes and waved a hand dismissively. "Forget about it. So when do we leave?"_

_ Farrah stomped her foot. "Mom! Dad!"_

_ Mrs. Todd collected herself and told Kayley to go wash the makeup and when she had walked away, wiped a humorous tear from her eye. "Oh, Farrah, relax. She just wants to be like you."_

_ "Why does she have to try to steal the spotlight?" Farrah lamented._

_ "She's more like you than you think," Mr. Todd smirked. Farrah rolled her eyes._

_ Mrs. Todd gave Farrah a hug. "One day, probably not anytime soon, you'll look back on this moment and you'll wish you could go back and relive it. She's your sister, Farrah, and that's forever. Now, when she gets that makeup washed off, I want to get a picture of you two together with her in the dress."_

Tears fell down Farrah's cheek as she remembered that day. Her mom was right.


	6. Sleep

Farrah, restless and quite frankly bored, lied down to sleep at a quarter 'til nine. She figured that her mind would be so preoccupied that she would lie awake all night, but to her surprise, she fell asleep instantly. Her sleep was blissful and dreamless but disturbed some hours later by movement somewhere nearby. Everyone was sleeping in the gym so they were fairly close together. Farrah noticed the time on her wristwatch. One fifteen in the morning. Mrs. Cameron rose from her sleep and was speaking in hushed tones to what appeared to be Officer Kyle. Farrah closed her eyes and pretended to sleep, all the while straining to listen.

"... locked her up in the chemistry lab," Officer Kyle was saying. "We're lucky it didn't cause a panic. You've been placed in charge here. What do you think we should do?"

Mrs. Cameron's tone was a panicked one when she responded, "I'm not equipped to handle a situation like this. What's your opinion? Please don't put this on me." Her voice was desperate and rising, so Officer Kyle silenced her and looked around.

"You have to keep your voice down. I know this is scary," he uttered in rushed tones. "But she has to be taken care of."

Farrah's entire body tensed up. Kayley. What if they had found Kayley and she'd already turned and now they were deciding what to do with her? They agreed to go assess the situation while Farrah lied there, tense and panicked. When they had left the gym, she came to her feet and rummaged to the bottom of her suitcase, grabbing the handgun she'd gotten from Paul. The thought of him made her heart drop but she pushed it aside, instead deciding to examine the gun and decide why it hadn't worked before.

She knew it was loaded, so that couldn't have been the problem. When it did run out of bullets, that was a different story. She had no idea how to reload a gun. She continued examining the gun, turning it over in her hands. That's when she saw the switch labeled safety and it hit her. Gun 101. She thumbed it off and then back on before heading into the hallways of the middle school.

She was familiar with the school which wasn't large, so within five minutes she was one turn away from being on the same hall as the chemistry lab. She craned her neck around the corner and saw Mrs. Cameron and Officer Kyle peering through the window of the lab. Mrs. Cameron was crying and nodding her head. Officer Kyle had his door on the handle and Farrah flew into a panic, rounding the corner. "Wait!" she exclaimed.

Officer Kyle whirled, his gun raised. When he saw who it was, he lowered it, more than miffed. "What the hell, Farrah? You don't need to see this."

She approached carefully, tears welling in her eyes. "It's my sister, isn't it?"

Mrs. Cameron and Officer Kyle looked at each other and shook their hands. "No!" Mrs. Cameron said, rushing forward to hold Farrah against her chest. "Sweetie, no. It's not Kayley."

"I found Kayley's friend that she rushed off with. Her name is Christina, right?" Farrah nodded at Officer Kyle, answering his question. "Well, she had been bitten." Farrah's heart dropped.

"I got her back here and decided to put her in there. But not before, on the way here, she said that her and Kayley had been swarmed not long after they snuck out. There were six or seven of those things, and they were running. Kayley was in front of her and jumped up on a fire escape to an apartment complex, but when Christina tried to, the boxes they had climbed up gave way and she fell back down. Kayley tried to come back down to get her but Christina ran off before she could."

Officer Kyle actually seemed teary-eyed now. "Christina didn't get bitten until I found her. I heard her screaming, not far from here. She'd been backed into a corner by two or three of them. I put two down and the third one right as the bastard sunk his teeth into her arm. It was a small bite."

"So, wait, is she okay? Is Christina okay?" Farrah had actually never met Christina before, but she'd heard Kayley talk about her. From how it sounded, Christina was meek had a rough home life. She really hoped the shy little girl would be okay.

Officer Kyle just looked at her a moment and then shook his head. "No," he choked out. "No. She fell asleep and when she woke back up, she lunged at me. I ran out to get Mrs. Cameron just a few minutes ago. I tried. I tried." The one person Farrah had felt a sense of security from in the past day fell to the ground before her, head in his hands, sobbing.

Unexpectedly, Mrs. Cameron put out her hand, gesturing for Farrah's gun. "I'll take care of it," she said solemnly. "This man has seen too much for one person to handle and he needs to have his breakdown if there's any hope of him coming out of this all right." Farrah wordlessly handed over her gun to Mrs. Cameron, one of the strongest women she'd ever known. She'd lost her only daughter in a car accident in the 80s, according to Farrah's mother. She'd lost her husband in this mess that was happening now, yet Farrah had not seen her break down at all.

Mrs. Cameron disappeared into the chemistry lab and Farrah knelt down and put a comforting arm around him, bracing herself for the gun shot. It came a moment later. She stood up. That's when the second shot rang out. Farrah's entire body went numb and she found herself rushing into the chemistry lab, faintly registering that Officer Kyle was rushing in behind her, weapon drawn. She saw the body of Christina first, a gunshot in the middle of her forehead. Then she saw Mrs. Cameron's lifeless body, her head a bloody, unrecognizable mess where she'd taken her own life. She started to sway, her knees buckling. Officer Kyle put an arm around her waist, steadying her as her vision got hazy. The room started spinning and Farrah's vision faded into the blackness, her last sight Mrs. Cameron's lifeless corpse.


End file.
